Kazan
Kazan is the fourth planet of the Kai system in the East Galaxy and the saran homeworld. In ancient times, a bleed with the Sphere of Hell known as Inferno appeared on the planet and it was forever warped by the energies which emerged through the rift. The entire planet became a piece of Hell existing in the Midplane, and only the hardiest life could survive there. It became the perfect place to forge the greatest warrior race in the Universe: the sarans. The planet itself is of a medium size with gravity many times that of Earth, requiring the life which evolved there to be especially strong. There are seven continents spread over the planet separated by four seas. Water covers over 60% of the planet’s surface. Kazan suffers from drastic extremes in climate, from scorching hot in the day to freezing cold at night. Most of the planet’s land mass is an arid desert, with only a few locations which are able to grow crops and raise cattle. Around these areas are the main settlements of saran civilization. Outside the cities and settlements is inhospitable wilderness prowled by hellish monsters. The sarans were one of several intelligent races which inhabited the planet, but these others were wiped out or bred into the saran population in fearsome race wars in Kazan's pre-history. This is suggested by the fact that modern sarans are smaller and more intelligent than their marauding ancestors. Kazan is also subjected to terrifying storms of incredible destructive power. The atmosphere has a reddish hue, giving the sky a crimson color. Indeed most of the planet seems to be colored red. This is likely to have been caused by sediment from when a giant and highly radioactive meteor crashed into the Kazan untold millennia ago. It is thought that this meteor jump started the evolution of the beasts of the planet into intelligent humanoids. The crater left by this impact can be found on the Eastern continent. It is called Big Hit by the sarans and is regarded as a holy place. However, the true origin of Big Hit was that it was ground zero for the dimensional bleed with Hell. The Royal Castle of the Sarada Clan was built on the cusp of the crater on the shore of the massive lake which formed inside of it. The location of Kazan was largely unknown by the Universe at large, since the sarans went undiscovered prior to Rao. He preferred to keep the source of his super soldiers a secret, and when the sarans overthrew him they saw little point to making their homeworld a target. Even into the rise of the Holy Order in the East Galaxy, no one outside the sarans themselves knew of the location of Kazan, instead the former garden world Akeron served as the center of the Holy Order’s government. Kazan has a system of rings which were made when an asteroid approaching the planet was destroyed by the first Saran King, Sarada. Given the amount of material in Kazan's rings, it is surmised that the threatening space rock may have actually been a small planetoid that threatened all life on Kazan. As it approached Sarada unleashed his full power and manage to destroy it, saving his people at the cost of his life. Since then the material of the planetoid has coalesced around the planet into rings. Because of this Kazan is beset by regularly by rocks falling from space. 'Inhabitants of Kazan' It is unknown what the races on Kazan were like before the rift with Hell opened on the planet, twisting it into the likeness of the infernal sphere of Inferno. The hellish influence infected everything, turning the landscape red and altering the life on the planet. All species became demonic, with black skin with glowing red eyes. Some races became humanoid and intelligent and began to worship the Devils who came through the Rift. Sarans The sarans are the most well known denizens of Kazan and the planet's sole "intelligent" life forms. The modern sarans are the mortal ancestors of the Saran Clan of Devils, and inherited their use of the power of Hellfire from them. When the rift with Hell opened, it greatly affected the indiginous life on the planet. Among the species to change, various races resembling the big cats of Earth were evolved into humanoids. When the Saran Clan emerged onto the planet, they conquered these races and bred with them, eventually creating a new race which carried the blood of demons. Forged by the harsh conditions of their planet and empowered by the demonic fire in their blood, the sarans became the greatest warrior race in the entire universe. Unlike the rest of Kazan fauna which is black skinned with red eyes, Sarans have pinkish skin and yellow eyes as diffusions from their Devil forebears. Tora Tora are feline predators of similar to the Big Cats of Earth, but much larger. They are of massive size (in many cases standing 6 feet at the shoulder), great power and fearsome disposition. Like the Bazu they are Aura sensitive and use this power to hunt prey. They tend to live in small groups generally dominated by a single male. They are symbols of awe to the sarans, who regard their great strength and cleverness as sources of inspiration. Tora are thought to have a common ancestor with the saran race, and continued as cats rather than evolving into humanoids. Tora have black skin with black manes and eyes that glow red. They are considered apex predators on Kazan. Higan Higan are flying reptilian beasts whose name translates to “sky lizard” in the saran tongue. Higans have long serpentine bodies, with clawed hands and feet. They have long necks and tails. Spiked ridges run down their backs from head to tail. They are born with teeth. Their heads have longer horns on the top and there are additional horns along the side of their jaws. Higan continue to grow throughout their lives and old ones are titanic in size and very dangerous, though on average they never achieve the size of their Dogan cousins. Higan possess powerful auras which they instinctively use to track prey, increase their strength, and fly. Like the sarans, they are able to use power of Hellfire which they breath in powerful jets from their mouths. Dogan Dogon are enormous predators that prowl Kazan's seas, they’re name translates to “sea lizards” and they are nearly identical to the Higan, only evolved to exist in oceans. They possess long necks and their jaws are full of teeth that can easily rend polysteel. Dogon are capable of swallowing an adult saran whole, which happens occasionally when sarans flying over the oceans are flying too low while a Dogon happens to be nearby. Like other races on Kazan they are Aura Sensitive, which they use to be able to sense prey and reinforce themselves for the crushing pressures of Kazan's deep oceans. Their skin is slick and jet black, and they have menacing eyes which glow red when they are angry. After the Kuteru, they are easily the largest species of Kazan, averaging over 100 feet in length. Gunzo A species similar to gorillas of Earth, Gunzo are very large and powerful. They typically stand between 8 & 9 feet tall with heavily muscled bodies, black skin and red eyes. While shy and avoiding contact with even other members of its own race, the Gunzo are highly territorial and will attack and kill any who threaten it. They are commonly hunted by sarans who enjoy wrestling them for sport. On average they are 4 times stronger than a normal saran and fight like berserkers. During mating season Gunzo become fiercely competitive for mates and have been known to carry off saran females by mistake. Bazu Bazu are small creatures which prowl the wastelands of Kazan and live in underground caverns. They resemble monkeys crossed with small dogs, but have black, sleek skin, a mouth full of terrible fangs, and no eyes. Like most of the species on Kazan, they have active Auras and are extremely powerful. Using Aura Tuning, they are adept hunters, stalking prey by tracking their Auras. They are able to channel Aura through their bodies, boosting their abilities as well. Bazu are social animals and tend to live in large packs controlled by an alpha male. The Bazu are extremely predatory, and though they are no threat to adult sarans, for small children they are a powerful adversary. Bazu are generally used early in the training of saran children, as surviving being dropped into a Bazu nest is considered their first real ordeal. Skrede The Skrede are a race of insect like predators of massive size who live in the mountains of Kazan. They spin massive webs in which they catch their prey and have been known to successfully capture and kill passing Higan. They are known for being constantly hungry and highly aggressive. Like other beasts of Kazan they have black carapaces and glowing red eyes. Karkan Karkans are enormous crab-like monsters which exist in Kazan's oceans. They like to lurk nearer to shores where they can spring from the water to attack unsuspecting prey. Zenra The Zenra are a race of flesh eating horse-like creatures which are widely regarded as the fastest species on the planet. They run across the Wastelands at blinding speeds leaving burning trails behind them. Despite their inate fearsomeness, Zenra can be domesticated and were used for transportation of goods back in the ancient days. Ragoon A race of amphibious beings, Ragoon are distinctive by their vaguely humanoid shape. They possess arms and legs with webbed hands and feet, but have bulbous heads with large eyes and mouths full of sharp teeth. Their hides are black scales which are slimey to the touch. They are capable of leaving the water and commonly come on land to eat, but they are unable to travel very far from water and cannot remain too long in the open air. Despite their humanoid shape, their minds are purely beastial and they have little thought beyond kill, eat, and breed. Horin Horins are massive planteaters which are raised on Kazan for their meat. They are 8 legged beasts with heavily muscled bodies, beaked snouts and horns protruding from their faces. When threatened they charge an opponent, and it is considered a sport among sarans to be able to stand in the path of a charging Horin and stop it with one's bare hands. Injury and death from such a practice are fairly common. Kuteru The Kuteru are poorly understood by the sarans as they are rarely seen. They are massive tentacle beasts which reside in the depths of Kazan’s oceans and rarely come anywhere near the surface. They are known to eat Dogan, which are themselves incredibly fearsome. Kuteru are known to be extremely powerful psychics, as they often use a psychic “shout” to stun prey from large distances and drag it down to the deep. Because they are dangerous to get near, few sarans have ever seen one in person. Like other denizens of Kazan, the Kuteru have slick black skin and fearsome red eyes. They possess a central head which is the size of a small house with dozens of writhing tentacles that can be hundreds of feet long. Trivia - When Dashora returned to Kazan with John Nash and Thuro, they managed to use the regular meteor showers from the planet's rings to mask their approach to the planet's surface. - While there is a copy of Kazan in every Universe, the 8th Universe was the only one on which a Hellmouth appeared and is the only one where sarans evolved. - There is evidence that the original Kazan was much smaller, but after the bleed with Hell occurred the planet gained a significant amount of extra mass. Saran scientists who noticed this dichotomy reason that only about 30% of the planet is thought to be original, the rest having gushed out of the hell bleed to overtake the planet. This original area has a far more stable environment and is where the vast majority of saran civilization is set up. The remaining 70% of the planet is full of inhospitable environments and incredible dangers. Fearsome monsters prowl these areas, and saran warriors frequently range into the wilderness in order to test their strength against the environment. - A secret project by the Holy Ghost to create saran colonies included finding planets which matched the ancient Kazan and injecting them with hell matter drawn from Kazan's environment. He had grand plans for dozens of psuedo-Kazans on which to raise new Sarans, but before his death only managed to seed one planet called Shura.